Story at a glance:
- The Six Square House was designed by Young Projects, an NYC-based architecture firm.
- This geometric home creates radial views on a long-standing Bridgehampton, New York property.
- The architects paid special attention to sightlines and nature throughout the design.
The nondirectional nature of Six Square House is mysteriously attractive and purposefully designed to feel settled amidst the existing historic buildings on the family’s Bridgehampton property.
Young Projects—no stranger to high-end residential designs—created the home in six 24-by-24-foot squares to offer radial views from the new construction to the 1850s farmhouse, existing pool house, and pool on the site. “There was a primary intent to have all of the buildings on the property have a good relationship with one another as well as good connectivity throughout the site,” says Noah Marciniak, licensed architect and partner at Young Projects.
A polished concrete path leads to a triangular courtyard. The slatted roof aligns with slatted exterior walls to create long, vertical striations that begin at the roof ridge and cascade to the ground. Roof and exterior walls are constructed from charred, stained, and sealed Accoya rainscreen and Western Red Cedar rainscreen. Photo by Alan Tansey
Marciniak drew inspiration for Six Square House from a mathematical tessellation pattern. “It’s primarily composed of squares, but it also has a triangular symmetry to it,” he says. Four squares are continuous and hold the expected interior elements of a home—a living room, kitchen, primary bedroom suite, and guest suite—while the remaining two squares serve as an open-air outdoor dining area and detached garage. The triangle, which the square design rotates around, is used as an outdoor courtyard that is visible from inside the home.
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- An exterior rainscreen protects the waterproofing envelope. The home is clad in deep gray, slatted Accoya wood, whose striations enhance the roofscape’s edges and arcs. Photo by Alan Tansey
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- Six Square House. Photo by Alan Tansey
It was important to have all areas of the property feel appropriately connected to one another both in a physical sense but also in a visual sense, so Young Projects paid special attention to view corridors and sightlines that go from one building to another.
“It’s not a box with a front and sides,” Marciniak says. “It has lots of fronts that are oriented in lots of different directions.” The rotational aspect of the home creates impressive views and seemingly effortless connectivity to the surrounding features. “It feels like a porous connected element rather than a divided element on the property.”
Nature is at every turn inside Six Square House. The living room windows look out to an old, gnarled oak tree, while the primary and guest bedrooms are positioned to capture the beauty of a beech tree. Photo by Alan Tansey
Young Projects preserved gorgeous grove trees, selectively added landscape, and used traditional structural elements that help Six Square House feel very intentional and well-settled in its Bridgehampton scenery.
The beauty of the property is framed within the interior windows of the home, creating gorgeous sightlines that connect to other elements on the site. The living room windows, for example, look out to a longstanding gnarled oak tree and the existing front house, while the primary and guest bedrooms are positioned to capture the beauty of a beech tree. Even the origination of the plinth, the concrete slab that floats above the ground on certain sides of the house, came from addressing how the building sat on the site without affecting the existing topography.
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- Flooring and millwork is white oak and ash, and countertops and selected shelving are light marble (Calacatta Caldia, Calacatta Gold, Mountain White, and Olympian White). Photo by Alan Tansey
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- Six Square House. Photo by Alan Tansey
The home’s traditional pitched roof pays homage to the pitched roof of the existing farmhouse on the property, while the home’s tessellation pattern, Accoya rainscreen, and western red cedar rainscreen invoke a modern feel. “The starting point for this is a barn,” Marciniak says. “It’s a pitched roof with very simple volume.”
The home’s interior is sheathed in alabasters and whites. Walls and ceilings are gypsum plaster. Photo by Alan Tansey
Beautiful sustainable features—like the exterior rain screen that protects the waterproofing envelope of the home and meadows of local wildflowers that serve as a pollinator habitat—help establish Six Square House as a modern, progressive home whose architecture holds the same interest and beauty as its historic counterparts.
Drawing courtesy of Young Projects
